Generally thought of as among the top sporting spectacles in the world, the FIFA World Cup brings to mind images of dazzling feats of human

skill and stunning strikes at goals. Players like Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany), Maradona (Argentina) and Paolo Rossi (Italy) have all earned their status as World Cup legends as each was skilled at hitting the back-of-the-net, scoring absolutely unbelievable goals at the tournament.

The FIFA World Cup began in 1930 and is played every four years; 2063 goals have been scored in its 80-year history. A somewhat surprising fact, however, is that despite being thought of as a goal-scoring-fest, during the 700 matches of the World Cup only 48 hat-tricks have been made.

It was 1930 when Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick (during the group stages), finding the net three times against Paraguay; this allowed the U.S. team to get through to the knockout stages of the tournament.

When he was just 17 years old, Brazil’s Pele became the youngest player ever to have scored a hat-trick (three goals) at World Cup, while at 33, Sweden’s Tore Keller became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in one match during the same competition. In 1958, Brazil beat Sweden and France in the World Cup semi-finals thanks to Pele's hat trick. In 1938 Keller performed a hat trick in the quarter final. This allowed Sweden to score 8 points against Cuba. Hungary beat Sweden five to one. Gyula Zswngeller scored a hat-trick in this match.

Unbelievably, there are four players who scored two hat-tricks during World Cup matches: Sándor Kocsis of Hungary scored a pair of hat-tricks at the 1954 game. Just four years later, France’s Just Fontaine equaled the feat in the '58 tournament; in 1970, Gerd Müller of Germany managed to make two hat-tricks, while Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina produced hat-tricks in 1994 and 1998. Batistuta is the only player who has scored a hat trick at two different World Cups.

The world's record for the fastest hat trick is held by Laszlo Kiss of Hungary. He performed it at the World Cup. In 1982, Kiss scored a hat-trick when he scored against El Salvador 69, 72, and 76 minutes into the game. Kiss is the only substitute who has scored a hat trick at a World Cup match.

There have only been two players that have scored a hat trick during a World Cup game for the losing team. In 1986, Igor Belanov of the USSR scored a hat-trick but his team still lost 4 to 3 to Belgium; in 1954, during the quarter-final Josef Hügi of Switzerland scored three goals when his team faced Austria -- still the Swiss lost 7 to 5. There were a couple of hat-tricks in this game, the last one by Theodor Wagner on the Austrian side.

A little known fact is that only two players scored World Cup hat-tricks from headers: Czechoslovakia’s Tomáš Skuhravý and Germany’s Mirolsv Klose. Skuhravý scored three times in 1990 and beat the team from Costa Rica, while Klose scored his three goals in 2002, when Germany went on to beat Saudi Arabia 8 to 0.

Yet the hat-trick that stands out in memory came in the 1966 final at Wembley Stadium when Geoff Hurst of England scored three times putting his team over West Germany 4 to 2. England won the World Cup, and Hurst scored the only hat-trick in a World Cup final.

Nevertheless, England's victory has sometimes been thought as controversial. Hurst scored a goal when the score was 2-2. You couldn't tell whether or not the ball had crossed the goal-line because it bounced off the crossbar and landed on the ground so fast. England was awarded the goal and the score was three to two in their favor. Just recently, digitally enhanced images have shown that, in fact, the ball did not cross the line, but such claims are merely a footnote because of Hurst's score in the very last minute of the match, which made an English victory final.

Rarely does this happen at the World Cup, but during the 2006 tournament no hat-tricks were scored; yet the feat of scoring three goals is a footballing phenomenon that lifts the spirits of players and fans alike, ensuring that those lucky to score one will be held in high esteem and remembered with passion and affection by the fans. Next is a table showing all the players who have ever scored a hat trick at a World Cup.